Welcome to 3Dface.org

In the near future, digital facial and fingerprint images will be implemented in all European passports, which will eventually lead to worldwide biometric-enabled supported border controls.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommends biometric-enabled border control based on 2D face recognition technology, which has two serious drawbacks:

First, the performance of 2D recognition is not satisfactory by far because it is very sensitive to pose variation, illumination situation and other disturbance factors.

Second, the system has no reliable mechanisms for liveness detection and protection against spoofing and identity hiding attacks.

The 3D Face project is therefore focused on 3D face recognition technology research, including fusion with 2D face recognition technologies, and its application in secure environments.

Its goals are to improve the biometric performance by an order of magnitude and to step forward towards fake-resistant sensors. Thus the project has a strong emphasis on cost savings and increased reliability which are both preconditions for self-service border controls. A second focus is on technology research for enabling privacy protection of the 3D biometric templates in the biometric processes.